Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Every day is an opportunity. But, you have to help it along. Which brings to mind these words of wisdom from one of my favorite marketing and business experts.
Easily distracted and mildly interested
We can either accept that this is the state of our audience and plan appropriately…
Or do the very difficult work of changing their state.
–Seth Godin
This is the time of year, more than any other season, when it’s imperative you attract and sustain attention. Beyond that, you must make it easy for folks to engage with you. And, particularly, to donate. That means optimizing for mobile, creating a user-friendly and compelling donation page, and assuring you’re driving folks to that page from multiple channels (website, email, social media, QR codes, and events). It also means crafting compelling stories, replete with outcomes folks can visualize. Invite people into your cause and community with specific actions they can take – actions that will make them feel like the good human beings they are.
This issue of the Clairity Click-it is filled with a curated mix of ideas and resources to help you generate the philanthropy you need to fuel your vision, mission and values. As you peruse the available selection, I invite you to look for just one idea you might try or adapt. Don’t stand still. Grow.
As always, a big thank you to my sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the hours of time hunting, gathering and choosing the eclectic resources I believe will best meet the needs of the diverse range of folks who comprise our critically important social benefit sector.
Thank you for doing your vital work, with gratitude,
Claire
P.S. If you’re already a Clairification School student, your NOVEMBER TIPS are live. If you’re not yet enrolled, please consider helping me cover my costs. [This is a labor of love – it’s all done by one person — so your support through enrollment is greatly appreciated! PLUS, this month’s tips are super useful — with lots and lots of year-end strategies.
Is $100 for a whole year a good investment for having someone (me) do your homework for you? Articles, monthly tips, newsletter, webinars, and even bonuses. You get them all.
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
SPECIAL FEATURE: Healing Centered Philanthropy
Click-it: What if philanthropy’s role is not to fix, but to help heal? This article by Shawn A. Ginwright, John Kania, and Monique Miles in Nonprofit Quarterly explores how much philanthropy’s traditional tools can repair social challenges in a world of deepening polarization, systemic racism, climate crisis, economic insecurity, and declining social trust. The emphasis is on the questions funders ask, and how a more healing-centered approach shifts philanthropy’s purpose from fixing what is broken to cultivating the conditions that make flourishing possible.
ARTICLES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: The Right Way to Ask Donors to Cover Processing Fees. You still have time to enable this donation page feature as a way to boost your year-end giving totals. Ronald Pruitt, 4aGoodCause, explains how it’s done in a way that’s transparent, donor-friendly, fair, and even beneficial to them (and your nonprofit).
Click-it: Top Direct Mail Fundraising Strategies for Modern Nonprofits. For all the focus on digital channels, a well-crafted piece of physical mail still does something an email can’t: it gets picked up, held, and read. But not all mail is created equal. This re: charity blog suggests some innovative strategies you can use, while doing the fundamentals with more precision.
Click-it: How to Follow Up with Your Donors About Matching Gifts. Here’s some practical advice from Mary Cahalane, Hands-On Fundraising, about sending matching gift reminders that actually elevate the supporter experience. The key? Clear instructions that make the process as effortless as possible for the donor.
Click-it: Please Adjust Your Donors to Fit the Appeal. Kevin Shulman, the Agitator-DonorVoice, has long advocated donor segmentation based on personalized matching. It’s not always easy to achieve, especially for small organizations. Which is why I posed a question about how those lacking growth budgets can achieve what he suggests. Read what he has to say, both in the article and in his answer to my query.
Database Management
Click-it: Do Your Donors Need Pipeline Safety Tips? When you send stuff to folks that doesn’t resonate with them, you do more harm than good. So, per Patrick Kirby, Do Good Better, now’s the time to do a little house cleaning. Learn how to clean your list, message, ask, inbox, calendar and desk. It will free you up to go raise more money.
Major, Capital and Legacy Giving
Click-it: Zombie Prospects: The Names in Your Portfolio That Won’t Go Away. Learn how to revive, reassign or release stalled prospects in this article from the Gail Perry Group.
Click-it: How to Secure Your Nonprofit’s First Bequest Without Lawyers. This FundraisingIP article walks through 8 simple steps for starting a bequest program as a small nonprofit, without complex software or external consultants.
Click-it: Your legacy campaign is not a strategy. You must develop your program strategy before attempting to promote it. Alas, per the Globetrotting Fundraiser, many organizations proceed ass backwards. This article includes five questions to ask yourself, before you think about designing a website or program brochures.
Online Digital Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Email marketing: you can’t email people you don’t have. If email is part of your fundraising strategy, list growth cannot be treated as an occasional activity or administrative concern. It is, in fact, part of the relationship-building process — how people first raise their hand, express interest, share something of themselves, and give permission to continue the conversation. The Institute of Sustainable Philanthropy notes that every email list shrinks over time, so list acquisition and retention need to be planned together. They share five ways you may not have thought about to bring donors into your email journey.
Strategy, Planning, Management and Leadership
Click-it: AI Is a Nonprofit Multiplier. What Are You Multiplying? If you lead a nonprofit, don’t go looking for an “AI person” to add to your team. And don’t assume your most experienced people will figure the tools out on their own. Joe Garecht suggests instead, invest in both halves.
Technology as Tool
Click-it: 4 Ways Tech Improves Staff Efficiency and Reduces Burnout. This Auctria article explores four practical ways the right technology can streamline daily workflows and reduce the risk of burnout by automating workflows, enabling digital collaboration, centralizing information, and expanding organizational reach.
Click-it: 5 Ways AI Can Transform Your Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy. In this guest post for Windmill Hill Consulting, Hannah Davis of EverTrue explores five use cases for how to include AI in your strategy: Major gifts prospecting; Donor communications at scale; Campaign forecasting; Donor journey management; Administrative assistance.
Year-End
Click-it: Your Year-End Appeal: 13 Tips to Help Your Donors Feel the JOY of Giving. 13 is my lucky number, so Marcy Heim had me at the title. It so happens this article includes a bunch of useful info as well.
Click-it: Fewer Donors, Bigger Gifts: Who to Call in 2026. Wondering who to pay attention to right now to maximize year-end philanthropy? This Market Smart article offers good advice based on data (where the money comes from) and practice (what predicts giving likelihood beyond capacity).
ONLINE CONFERENCE
Click-it: ImpactUp: Pause [Register for free day of local meet-ups + global livestream, 11-12-2026]. ImpactUp is the global activation of the We Are For Good community, held 4 times a year — one theme, one day, one worldwide gathering of changemakers. It kicks off with a virtual livestream, then ripples out to inspire local meetups hosted by community members in cities worldwide. You can sign up to host a local gathering.
Click-it: Nonprofit Social Media Summit [Register for free online 2-day event, 11-17 & 18, 2026]. Julia Campbell brings nonprofit communicators and fundraisers together for two days of practical strategy, all action, no fluff. Live Q&As, in-session chat, polls, games, whiteboard and brainstorming sessions are all part of the fun.
WEBINARS, PODCASTS, ROUNDTABLES & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES
If you can’t attend live, or are interested in sessions happening at overlapping times, note many are available via recording – but ONLY if you REGISTER!
Culture of Philanthropy
Click-it: How to make room for joy this giving season [Register for free webinar, 11-17-2026]. Join Give Butter for this interactive workshop on how humor and joy build trust, ease tension, and make room for honest conversations at every level of your organization.
Donor Advised Funds
Click-it: Activate DAF Dollars: A Strategic Opportunity For Nonprofits. Check out my Part 1 article for the Bloomerang blog about how to reach out and invite DAF donors to invest in your vision. DAFs represent one of the most underutilized opportunities in fundraising today, and now is the time to activate those dollars and turn passive potential into powerful impact. You can do it!
Psychology of Giving
Click-it: The Science Behind Your Donation Experience [Register for free webinar, 11-10-2026] Do you know why donors make the decisions they do? Join FundraiseUp for a leadership-level look at the science behind your donation experience, drawing on five years of giving season data from 500+ U.S. nonprofits and audits of real nonprofit giving experiences.
Technology as Tool
Click-it: N1 Philanthropy: Precision, Connection, and the Future of Generosity [Register for free webinar, 11-20-2026]. Join Nathan Chappel and Gabe Cooper of Virtuous, to learn: What “N of one” means and how to apply it with your next appeal; Where AI helps in donor connection and where it doesn’t; Where to start with the data and tools you already have; Why this is possible now and wasn’t five years ago.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, PAPERS, TEMPLATES & OTHER RESOURCES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Monthly Giving Club [Read free resource]. Monthly giving guru Erica Waasdorp lays out everything you need to know to build a reliable path toward sustainable, diversified revenue that doesn’t depend on your next appeal landing well. It’s a step-by-step blueprint.
Click-it: Giving Tuesday 2026: A Nonprofit Planning Guide With Email Templates [Access free resource]. Most Giving Tuesday guides stop at the thank-you email. This one from Soapbox Engage goes further. You’ll find a week-by-week timeline, five email templates you can adapt, a checklist for tracking gifts in your CRM, and a plan for the part most nonprofits skip: turning first-time Giving Tuesday donors into second-time donors.
Donor Acquisition
Click-it: Donor Segmentation for Nonprofits: The Complete Guide . This Bloomerang guide covers what donor segmentation is and describes 6 strategies your organization can use to reach your target audience and engage them with your mission. It also includes some expert commentary, from yours truly, about the importance of tapping into donor identity.
Events
Click-it: What Should Be the Role of Events in Major Gift Fundraising?. In my personal opinion, one of the best reasons to host an event is major donor cultivation. But you can’t leave anything to chance. See what Jeff Schreifels has to say in this paper from the Veritus Group.
Strategy, Planning, Management and Leadership
Click-it: What happens when a fiscal sponsor shuts down? Learn what’s happening in the world of fiscal sponsorship, and what to consider if you’re thinking of going down this road. Find this in Nonprofit Quarterly.
Did You Miss My Newest Articles?
Here are links to the most recent articles on the Clairification blog. Remember, your goal is not simply to squeeze money out of people. It’s to give donors a squeeze and a hug for being caring and generous. This will make them feel good, which will move them to continue sticking with you.
1️⃣5 Major Gift Meeting Mistakes to Avoid Before You Make the Ask
2️⃣Ready to Ask for a Major Gift? Don’t Make These 5 Mistakes
❤️7 Magic Words that Increase Charitable Donations
👻8 BOO BOO’s! Are You SCARING Nonprofit Donors Away?
1️⃣Key “Secret” to Making a Good First Impression on Nonprofit Donors
2️⃣Key “Secret” to Making a Good Second Impression on Nonprofit Donors
3️⃣Key “Secret” to Making Ongoing Good Impressions on Nonprofit Donors
Finally… if you have a question, any question…
Check out my free fundraising advice column on the Bloomerang blog! Ask your question here. And bookmark the Ask an Expert page for any time you have a question! Here’s one: Should Fundraiser Salaries Correlate With How Much Revenue They’ll Generate?
REMINDER for Clairification School students: Don’t forget to log in to your “My Clairification/Subscriber Dashboard/Monthly Tips” to grab your exclusive, timely tips for each month. NOVEMBER tip is live! If you’re not yet an enrolled student, and don’t have direct, immediate access to ALL my blog articles, monthly tips, webinars, podcasts and much more, you can get in on the fun here — and grab your BONUS! Don’t miss out. Please.
And now…
Aftermath: What happens when pumpkins over-celebrate.
It’s the best line in town!
“Unsafe to Swim,” Oleg Lobykin. Part of San Francisco’s public “Big Art Loop.” Recycled materials, fiber glass and concrete.
Found this lying on the ground… and it expresses how I feel about you!
Please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). The Clairity Click-it content is free, and Clairification School is affordable, because of their generosity.
Leave Comment
